This invention pertains to signal devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to motor vehicle signal devices.
The invention is particularly applicable to roadside or highway warning devices which indicate that caution should be exercised when approaching a particular location on a road. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention can readily be adapted for use in other safety or warning environments where the attention of a bypasser should be directed to a particular location.
Warning devices for drivers of motor vehicles approaching a particular location in a road are known. For example, highways under construction usually employ orange barrels or roadside barricades which oftentimes have battery powered flashers mounted thereon. Such battery powered flashers are also utilized by some drivers when their motor vehicle has broken down on the side of a road. Other drivers have employed roadside flares for this purpose. A third type of known device is a safety warning triangle which is mounted on the disabled vehicle or is used adjacent thereto. Each of these devices, however, has its own limitations.
Battery powered flashers are only useful as long as their battery lasts. Oftentimes such flashers are stored in a vehicle, and when the need for them arises the driver, to his consternation, finds that the battery in the flasher has discharged, so that the flasher no longer works. Flares are disadvantageous because they burn out rather quickly and they can cause serious burns either during lighting or during the time they are burning. Free-standing safety triangles are disadvantageous from the standpoint that often the wind will blow them over. In addition, all three of these types of devices are disadvantageous from the standpoint that the driver has to leave the safety of his vehicle in order to employ any of them. For a stranded motorist, getting out of his car is quite hazardous as the motorist can be struck and killed by a passing motorist who did not even see him. The addition of bad weather only multiplies the problems of visibility and slows down the reaction time of motorists passing by the stranded vehicle. A snowstorm can present even greater dangers to the occupants of stranded cars if they decide to leave their car to seek help.
Safety warning triangles which are car mounted, and other car mounted warning signs, are advantageous from the standpoint that their deployment does not involve the driver getting out of his vehicle to deploy the warning sign. However, they are disadvantageous from the standpoint that such known warning devices are hoe prominently visible so as to be noticed by approaching drivers far enough away from the stranded vehicle so as to allow approaching drivers enough time to steer around the stranded vehicle.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved apparatus which overcomes all of the above referenced problems and others and provides a new and improved safety signal device which is simple in design, economical to manufacture, light in weight, highly visible, can be assembled in the motorist's vehicle, and can be deployed without the motorist having to leave the safety of his vehicle.